


Abode of Fire

by apotropaicsymbol



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Eddie Brock, F/M, Implied/Referenced Violence, Other, Sexualization of Violence, Unethical Journalism, Venom Symbiote Loves Eddie Brock, alternating pov, pretty light on the depiction of violence but deals with dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 18:47:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20158336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apotropaicsymbol/pseuds/apotropaicsymbol
Summary: Despite everything, Anne still wanted to believe the best of Eddie. And the best she could believe was this: maybe he could have been a good person.Maybe if he hadn't met Venom.





	1. Eddie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NeurotropicAgentX](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/gifts).

> Based on this discussion I had with them: https://archiveofourown.org/comments/232809850

The night falls on Frisco like a tidal wave, like a leather jacket, like a slick black shadow, like a rising bruise. Hunting is always good, and when Venom winds their way inside Eddie's brain and hit the right set of buttons, he's energized, feeling good, ready to take on the world. 

Venom falls on Eddie like a tidal wave. The powerful legs are his, the claws tearing their way up the side of the building, the purplish haze that hangs over the city, the round, distant headlights bobbing along the highway. Up here the air is cooler, clearer, and they are poised in stillness. A gargoyle. A really good-looking gargoyle who's ready to kick some ass.

**You're welcome.**

“Yeah, when I win a Pulitzer I'll thank my hair and makeup team.”

From this vantage point it's not too hard to sense anything they want to. Soon enough they find what they're looking for.

“Gimme your money! Now, bitch!”

Someone the world would be better without.

“Alright, V,” he murmurs. “You ready for dinner and a date?”


	2. Jack

_Ring. Ring. _

_Ring. Ring._

“Hello, my darling.”

“Hi, Arlene.” Hearing her voice is enough to make some muscle inside him relax. “How are you today?”

“Good! Right now I'm walking the dogs. Deloris is gonna come over tonight and we're gonna talk about going through Mommy's things. How about you? Are you OK?”

“Yeah.”

A preparatory pause, a pause they both expect. “You sure...?”

Jack leans his head against the wall of his hotel room. “It's been... a _long day_.”

“Ohhh,” Arlene says. “Your hip?”

“I have been in pain all fucking day. And these executives –if I have to talk to Mark again, I don't know if I'll kill him, myself, or just light the fucking building on fire. And I just – Christ, I am so tired. Tired of this evil goddamn world. You know what? No matter how they want to spin it, this industry is _dying _and all the philanthropists in the world won't make it live. Maybe if they stopped shitting on the union this network would have a chance, but they don't want that. Cut into their profits. I mean, who at a fucking news network would care about our ability to report the news?”

“Yeah. Well, they have to keep the lights on somehow. And honestly, Jacky, you saw this coming for years. TV's always been about advertisers.”

“Yeah,” he sighs. “I did.”

“Maybe you'll get lucky and Mark will get food poisoning!”

Jack is surprised into a laugh at that. “It happened once, and I wasn't there. And no-one will ever get that lucky again.”

“I'll get over there. I'll put something in his drink.”

“Something?”

“Dog doo.”

He closes his eyes, smiles. “You're OK, baby.”

“I'm the _best_.”

“Yes,” he breathes. “You are. Oh! I didn't tell you. You know the _best fucking part?_”

“What?”

“Eddie Brock is back.”

“_No_!”

“Apparently he's moving to print.”

“_Oh my goodness_!”

“God! He's like – Teflon! I don't understand – look. He is an exceptional reporter, an _exceptional _reporter. But God damn it. I am _so glad _that someone besides me is gonna have to deal with his bullshit now. Fuck, what was Buzzfeed thinking. Look – the concept of _Buzzfeed Daily _is unbelievable by itself. But now? With _Brock_? They're gonna be shitting blood.”

“Crying blood.”

“That too.” Jack paces around the room in long, leisurely steps. “I am so goddamn glad I called you.”

There's a smile in her voice. “I'm glad you called me too! I missed you. I still can't believe that Buzzfeed is going to make a _Buzzfeed Daily_. Honestly, Jacky...Eddie always creeped me out. I don't know...” Her voice fades to silence. "He just seemed so...impulsive. I don't really know how to say it. Remember when we had him over for dinner? And you started talking politics? I thought he was gonna jump up and run away to murder Bezos."

“Yeah.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I regret introducing him to you.”

“Oh, stop. You don't need to be _sorry_ for that.”

“OK, you're right.”

They stay on the phone like that for a few seconds, breathing in each other's silence.

“From what you told me,” Arlene says softly, “he was obsessive.”

“Yes. And I think that's the worst part. So much talent. Under an infinite _mountain _of crazy. Arlene – there is nothing he would not do – not even for the poor, but for _specific homeless people_. He picked out _favorites_. He would break every goddamn rule in the book if it took down one of the 'cynical elites.' It's like he had no limits, there is nothing he won't do. I have no fucking idea how he got through journalism school – ethics just slide right off him. God, I fought with him, the bosses fought with him, so many times--!”

“Well,” Arlene's voice comes through the phone, “he's Buzzfeed's problem now. Get some sleep, Jacky.”

Someone else's problem now.


	3. Anne

In the darkness of her bedroom, Anne opens her eyes.

Eddie cared about  _justice_ , about  _honor_ , about  _truth_ , about the  powerless and hurting  more than anyone Anne had ever met. That was one of the things that drew her to him – his strength in standing up for others, his shining core. They would stay up nights talking criminology: how theft and drug dealing were crimes of poverty, how you would have to execute 300 murderers to save a single victim. Her Eddie, so idealistic, a tide she could not resist. A mind ready and willing to solve puzzles. Like something symmetrical, something perpendicular. She saw in his investigative ability something like her own knack for slipping inside the laws and reworking them, pulling them taut to catch or release. And wasn't it idealism that drove her through law school, that kept her up late typing papers at night?

While Anne's moral core had decayed through exposure, Eddie's had crystallized, got harder and sharper, the more evil he saw. Was it truly a change in him, or just an uncovering of what was already there? So many times she had wondered –  _where does it end_ ?  _God, Eddie, where do you stop?_ Anne had been raised by a father who exploded at any criticism – but Eddie was closer to Fiberglass than a bomb. Nothing she said ever scratched deeply enough to make a mark. Nothing she said ever mattered. Only the crusade, the crusade that could rationalize anything, the crusade that never ended. Even the debacle of falsely accusing someone of being a serial killer was justified: Emil Gregg had it coming because he heard the murders and refused to do anything about it.

Neither of them were good people, really, but the difference is that Eddie refused to admit it.

Anne had sacrificed so much for him – moving to California, staying with him despite what all her friends said, refusing to divorce him so he could  _stay on her insurance--_

And then there was his new relationship. What had Venom sacrificed for him? When they took her, she recognized the open infatuation, the feeling that all Venom wanted was to stay with him and help him, forever. Bask in his light. She had felt like that once upon a time. She still did, but the love had gone curdled, now.

Maybe if Eddie hadn't met Venom there would still have been hope for him. Maybe he could have died a normal human, an OK human, if he had still been only a human. With his share of tarnish on his silver, but mostly harmless, in the end.

There are forums on the Internet that show blurry video of a shadowy figure. Anne has quite a few contacts in the SFPD, and more and more people are turning up missing. Gang members, career criminals, all the people that the clean-cut tech workers define themselves against. Maybe Venom's not sacrificing anything. Maybe Venom's getting exactly what they want.

Anne thinks about how Eddie, in some of his smarmier moments, would call himself “a muckraker – no, a muck_breaker._” She remembers how he smiled.

If nothing else, Anne is relentlessly honest with herself. Here is the truth:

There are certain things about her that nobody will ever understand. Dan is so good to and for her, a drink of water on a hot day, and she swears she will give him the things he deserves. But he may never understand these thoughts, which are many. Nobody will. Here is one of them:

The most terrifying thing about Venom is that they latched onto Eddie. _There is no such thing as can't. _There really isn't, anymore.

She promised herself she would never move again, but maybe she should reconsider. Or maybe there is no place far enough to move, not anymore.

Anne falls back asleep, dreams of rockets crashing, heads bursting. A darkness pours out. It blots out the sun.


	4. Venom

Eddie is _delighted_, as he always is. By the foreplay, anticipating the consumption. Consummation. It's really the same at this point, isn't it? Knowing that they're the cause of Eddie's joy, that they're doing this together, gives Venom a warm glow inside. Maybe later they can make their surface full of little sparkles and Eddie will hold them and gush over how cute they are. The real reason they do that is because their host is cute himself when he starts the cooing, but shh, nobody needs to know that.

Venom feels the hunger running through them, a sweet burn made better by the way it will be soothed. Oh, Earth was definitely worth this: this glee at the sight of the criminal, the excitement at what's coming next. Eddie's approval shoots through them like lightning, like a flood. This night is going to be _great_.

“Let's fuck him up, babe.”

_I love you. I hope I can always be with you. _ But there will be time enough to say that later, or rather only think about saying it, and right now there's meat that needs to be put on the menu. ( _Lord of the Rings _ has given Venom so much. Hissing “my preciousss” is always a good start to the day.)

The stink of fear fills the alleyway; the robber's eyes go big and round. Hilariously, he doesn't run. Humans only have so many phrases when they are scared, and he says one of them: “What are you?”

“**_We _are Venom. And this is _our _city, which you have defiled with crime. But we are in a generous mood. Before we tear you in half and suck out your organs, we would like to know: just what do you think gives you the right to assault and threaten innocent people? Do you think you're God? If so...we can fix that misconception. We will enjoy sending you to your maker.” **

Their prey's face goes ashen. Venom almost pegs him as a fainter, but no, he's still upright. “I got kids waiting for me," he chokes. "I got a wife—_no, no, stop---_”

Playing with their food is fun, but, Venom muses, every game is more fun when you win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. Constructive criticism is appreciated.


End file.
